1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel cover which is attached to an automobile wheel for ornamentation, and particularly relates to an attaching mechanism of the wheel cover to the automobile wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to improve the ornamentation of the automobile wheel, an aluminum wheel is generally utilized. However, since the ordinary aluminum wheel can not change its ornamental surface, a user can not enjoy a variety of designs with the aluminum wheel. Applicant of this application completed an invention for resolving the conventional problem, and filed its patent application (Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 9-193601).
FIG. 1 shows one embodiment in the above patent application. An aluminum wheel for automobile is comprised of a wheel body 10 made of aluminum and a cover 20 which is detachably fixed to the wheel body 10. The wheel body 10 is intended for providing necessary and minimum strength to the wheel. In the above application, as examples of the attaching manner of the cover 20 to the wheel body 10, utilizing a variety of clips or a planar fastener is disclosed. Other than those disclosed in the application, holding hooks 22 as shown in FIG. 2 can also be utilized.
FIG. 2 shows a cross section along the line 2--2 in FIG. 1 wherein the cover 20 is attached to the wheel body 10. From a backside of a spoke 21 of the cover 20, a pair of holding hooks 22 are projected in face to face relationship. Each hook portion 22a at the free end of the holding hook engages with a backside of the spoke 11 of the wheel body 10, so that the cover 20 can be fixed to the wheel body 10. With this construction, however, when the cover 20 as an ornament is detached from the wheel body 10 in order to be replaced with another one, the backside edge (holding edge) 11a of the spoke 11 made of aluminum bites into the root of the hook portion 22a of the holding hook 22, and in an extreme case, the hook portion 22a is broken to spoil the holding hook 22.